Bios: CRESS PITZER : Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
  
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    Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lawrence Co transcribers.
    Coordinated by Ed McClelland
  
    Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
    http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
   
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    Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
    Lawrence County Pennsylvania
    Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
    
    An html version with search engine may be found at 
    
    http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/lawrence/1897/
    
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    CRESS PITZER,
    
    [p. 151] the leading merchant of the village of East Moravia, Taylor
  township, was born in Shenango township, two miles east of New Castle, Feb.
  24, 1839, and was a son of Michael and Elizabeth (Cameron) Pitzer, and
  grandson of Michael Pitzer, Sr., who was born in the Fatherland, and followed
  the vocation of a farmer all his life, dying at the age of eighty- two in 1835
  or 1840. Our subject's father was born in the State of Virginia in 1802, and
  fell into that last deep sleep that knows no waking in 1881, at his home in
  Dickinson Co., Tenn. He was what might be termed a born mechanic, for to
  whatever trade he turned his attention he mastered it easily, adapting
  himself to new and peculiar tools with wonderful rapidity; he was first a
  cooper by trade, but was equally well a shoe-maker, and could perform as good
  work at carpentry as the best of them. He became quite well-to-do in
  Pennsylvania, and in 1868 moved with most of his children and their families
  to Dickinson Co., Tenn., where he purchased 530 acres of land, intending to
  have all his children live around him. His wife, who died at the age of
  seventy-three, was a native of Pittsburg, and a daughter of Allan and
  Elizabeth Cameron. Allan Cameron, who was born in the bonny land of Scotland,
  served on the American side in the conflict for American Independence.
    
    Cress was reared in Shenango township, and went to Austin School-house
  until he was ten vears of age, and thus acquired his education. He was
  apprenticed at an early age to the trade of a shoe-maker, but be did not long
  continue to follow the cobbler's art, for the work disagreed with his health.
  He then sought more rugged and out-door employments, and decided on boating
  on the canal; he bought a canal boat, the McFarland, which plied between
  Pittsburg and Erie, Pa., and Meadville, Ohio, and was engaged in carrying
  freight until the canal was closed to navigation. In 1867, he moved with his
  father and other members of the family to Dickinson Co., Tenn., and farmed
  for thirteen years near Charlotte, also operating a threshing-machine. In
  1880, he returned to Lawrence County, and in the spring of 1881 built a
  store-room in East Moravia on the east side, where he carries as
  well-selected a stock of general merchandise as is to be found in any village
  in the county. His spare time is taken up with job work in repairing shoes. He
  is building up a large trade as well as lucrative, for he has good business
  qualifications, and his integrity goes unquestioned among his fellow-townsmen.
    
    Mr. Pitzer was married in Shenango township, March 1, 1860, to Elizabeth
  Shaffer, daughter of Joseph and Eva (Pitzer) Shaffer, and she has borne him
  the following family of nine children: Joseph, a farmer of Washington
  township, who married Minnie West, and has fonr childrenÑByron, Luther K.,
  Melvin, and Cress; Albert, a car inspector, living near his father in Taylor
  township, who married Mary Jones, and has a family of threeÑDavid, Esther,
  and Ralph; David; Emma; Frank, a conductor and brakeman on the P. & L. E. R.
  R.; John, who is employed at the tube works in Ellwood City; Samuel; Ida; and
  Doris. Mr. and Mrs. Pitzer are members and regular attendants of the M. E.
  Church. In politics, Mr. Pitzer is a firm Republican, and does all he can in
  a legitimate way to advance the interests of that party.